CSC on brink of collapse due to corruption

The Cold Storage Commission (CSC), once the leading meat supplier in Zimbabwe, is facing collapse due to mismanagement and corruption, the Herald reported Monday.

According to the report the CSC is left with only 600 cattle at its nine farms across the country. The report attributed the decline at the parastatal to mismanagement, corruption and lack of innovation to compete with private meat suppliers.

This development comes at a time when parastatals are in the spotlight due to numerous allegations of graft, with reports that some executives were earning ‘corrupt salaries’ running up to as much as half a million dollars a month.

The report said the state of the CSC’s Chinhoyi branch provides a glimpse into the extent of the company’s decline. Once manned by a workforce of 500 people the depot now struggles to pay its staff of 65. Moreover, CSC Chinhoyi no longer has beasts of its own but operates on a ‘service slaughter’ basis. This is when customers bring in their beasts and pay the CSC to slaughter them at its abattoir.

The depot slaughters about 300 beasts a month at a cost of $25 each. This means that the depot is only able to realize $7,500 a month from this service. CSC also sells hides for $22 each which adds an extra $6,600. All in all, the depot has a revenue of $14,000 per month leaving the company struggling to run smoothly, the Herald said.

The depot is reeling under a huge debt as it owes the Chinhoyi Municipality and other service providers, like Zesa, Zimra and NSSA, ‘hundreds of thousands of dollars.’ Electricity and water supplies have since been disconnected, forcing the depot to rely on a generator and a borehole.
Bulawayo Agenda Executive director, Thabani Nyoni said the situation at the Chinhoyi depot was ‘not an isolated case’. Nyoni said a recent tour of the CSC Bulawayo depot revealed that the company as a whole needs ‘total revamping.’

Nyoni said: ‘The infrastructure is dilapidated; the equipment is rusty and looks like it was erected decades ago. The company has downscaled a number of its core activities and the management have never accounted.’

Nyoni said the company can only be saved if it is privatized and the management are hired transparently. ‘Cash injection alone will not serve CSC; we need total accountability,’ said Nyoni.

COMMENTS

Accountability should come from ZANU they destroyed the economy due to greediness . We would like to know what is the way forward and what are the recommendations from the selected committee. All the minsters should’ve summoned to attend an urgent meeting to highlight the gross irregularities that have been going on for the past 34 years .the relevant ministers should be asked to resign with immediate effect.

The only good thing about the collapse of all these parastatals is that it should be absolutely clear to all that Zanu pf is a failed governnent that is totally incompetent to run anything. Whatever they touch turns to dust. Show me one thing they have improved? Nothing!!

It must be those Damned British who left all those corrupt positions in place back in 1960 when they still had something to say in the governance of Rhodesia. If they had never built those roads, hospitals, developed a sophisticated Civil Service there would never have been this corruption. Add to this the sanction of travel for the one and only person who could resolve this issue, this was another nail in the coffin hammered relentlessly by those Damned British.

Eish! Zim is quite a sad story. Do we really have to blame the whites for all this or it is plainly clear that we are our own enemies. Our mindset as a people has to change, otherwise everything we touch will surely turn into dust. Africa’s number one enemy is greediness and selfishness. People think of themselves and of the now. Nobody cares about others, the future or the next generation. That’s the greatest curse which is upon Africa’s leadership.

Well said Dave. ZANU PF touched parastatals and they all turned to dust. They touched agriculture and it all turned to dust. They touched our economy and it all turned to dust. Don’t let them touch the living lest the are all turned to dust six feet under the ground. Shame ZANU PF, matadza basa zvachose!

You can’t rig a good business plan. The evidence is before us. There was a time you could put your car on the train in Harare, then travel in comfort to Vic Falls, use the car there and return same way. Would be suicide to jump onto the current NRZ ramshackle set up.

So much for the fruits of freedom, they are bitter pills. Not only politicians to blame as many large companies in the private sector suffered the same fate. Virtually everything has been indigenised and the country has paid the price. Racism never worked before 1980 so how could it work since then. At least pre 1980 everything worked!!